SOCHI, Russia - When the U.S and Norway met Monday night in a first-round Olympic curling match, the spinning ashtray, the mops that helped propel it and the bloodcurdling shouts of the contestants didn't seem nearly so wacky.

Who's going to laugh at curling, after all, when the Norwegian men's pants are in the house?

You know your sport is an obscure one when trousers are its best-known element. But the curling world, happy for any attention it can muster, doesn't care.

The pants that Norway's four curlers wore in their 7-4 victory over the U.S. men were a colorful cross between something you'd see in the Museum of Modern Art and an LSD experience.

Red-white-and-blue — their flag's colors, too — this newest version was modeled on Piet Mondrian's paintings, a series of colorful cubes and black lines juxtaposed in harmony.

The curious crowd in the Ice Cube Curling Arena at times seemed mesmerized as the Norwegians inside the famous pants swept, crouched and huddled.

And if you think Monday night's pants were off the wall — they certainly weren't off the rack — you should have seen how they dressed at practice on Sunday.

There the curlers debuted a grandmother's quilt disguised as knickers. To top off their now famous look, the Norwegians wore soccer-style socks and "sixpence" flat caps.

"By now," said Christoffer Svae, "people expect this from us. We have to meet their expectations."

The various wildly patterned pants the team employs have become a worldwide phenomenon. A Facebook page dedicated to them has 545,000 followers, most of whom probably couldn't differentiate between a curling stone and a curling iron.

The inadvertent fashion statement debuted at the last Winter Games, 2010 in Vancouver. Determined to don something bolder than the sport's traditional black pants, and wanting to incorporate their flag's colors, the team ordered some diamond-checked golf trousers online.

How ugly were the pants? Well, they previously had been favored by hard core Ole Miss fans.

"To me, they were ridiculous," said Nergaard.

But Olympic fans and especially journalists, desperate as always for any remotely interesting curling angle, were instantly captivated.

Stories appeared in newspapers, on TV and the Internet. And suddenly this obscure northern sport, which, like a groundhog, surfaces only periodically, was a hot topic.

Since hardly anything related to curling has ever been a hot topic, and since the Norwegians departed Vancouver with a silver medal, the team decided to ride the weird wave.

"People saw them on TV and they liked them," said Svae, briefly gazing down at his. "They look better on TV."

Soon a clothing company called Loudmouth, which specializes in outlandish clothing, noticed, signed on as a curling sponsor and began specially designing the pants.

Norway's lockers now contain close to 100 pairs. Some are decorated in various flag patterns, others have a diamond design that can produce a 3-D effect.

Wherever the Norwegians traveled after Vancouver, they found people eager to talk about their pants.

"It was a little weird at first," admitted Nergaard.

If opponents sometimes found the Norwegian's trousers distracting, so too did the Norwegians.

Svae said that when the team is losing, players sometimes gaze down at what they're wearing, realize they look like clowns, and feel better about themselves and the match.

They felt good about themselves Monday night after dispatching the Americans, who by contrast appeared to have been outfitted by the Dollar Store.

And if Norway should make it to another Olympic podium, you'll want to be there for the medal ceremony. Be sure to salute the pants.